Otaku Links: a farewell to JManga, and are anime fans misunderstood?

Two fan filmmakers are attempting to crowd-fund a documentary on the subject of “anime and its misunderstood fandom.” It’s nowhere close to meeting its goal, but I’m curious about how they might tackle the “misunderstood” part. Are anime fans still at the stage where we have to explain ourselves to outsiders? Watch their pitch video and see for yourself.

Over at Sexy Videogame Land, Leigh Alexander writes about the short-lived security gamers find through playing life simulations:

They call some large-scale simulations “god games” because you play god – but maybe they take a role in our lives like religion, a repetitive ritual that makes us feel less afraid, like success is always attainable because the system is fair.

Ooh, I really wanted that pitch video to be good, but they just don’t really make the argument very strongly. I would totally watch a documentary about anime fandom and con culture, but they haven’t convinced me they could make it. They approach it almost defensively as “people think we’re weird” and not as “anime is fabulous and we wanna tell you why.” :-/

Thank you for posting our Indiegogo page. I have to agree with both of the comments, that video is horrible, we’re way too stiff. All I have to say is thank god we are not acting in this film… I think it also made us come off in more of a defensive way as well. We want to create a film that covers all of the basics of anime fandom and a more in-depth look at convention culture. I am in the process of making another one, so I hope you give us a second chance.

Lauren

@Daniel, and thanks for commenting! I found your page on Anime News Network, so I bet you’ve gotten a ton of feedback; is that why you’re making another? Either way, definitely link me when it’s up.

I will be making a new “pitch” video for this campaign. We’ve had a bit of negative feedback, but mainly because people think we will either try to spin the film for sympathy or that we will make the anime community look bad. We have also seen interest from a lot of anime fans, so at least the idea seems to have some support. The video does have to go, though. I’ve never liked the thing. :P